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Crumbling Forest Hills overpass crumbles enough to have the state shut one side down
By adamg on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 3:06pm
State engineer inspects overpass underside around 5 p.m.
UPDATE: The state Department of Transportation tweets the closed lane was reopened around 4:30 a.m.
Alex Jones reports state highway engineers ordered the outbound side of Casey Overpass shut down this afternoon when parts of it began crumbling to the ground below. Plan your afternoon commute accordingly.
Traffic coming off the overpass this afternoon.
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Comments
Are we going to fix it...
before we can tear it down?
Some people in Somerville...
Want the McGrath Highway bridges to crumble and be shut down rather than spend $15M to keep them from falling. They rather spend 10x as much to tear down the bridges and redo the whole roadway. The bridges are fine, its just the surface roadway underneath that is a confusing mess. Bridges make it easier for pedestrians to cross under busy roadways like McGrath.
BTW, Science Friday radio program on NPR today was on crumbling bridges with a guest from SaveOurBridges.com
"Bridges make it easier for
"Bridges make it easier for pedestrians to cross under busy roadways like McGrath."
Stop lights and cross walks also make it easy for pedestrians to cross roads. The McGrath is not a busy road, it is just a very big road designed to cary heavy truck traffic to I-93 from assembly plants and factories that are now long gone and will never return, having been turned into malls and condos.
I think those cooky people you are referring to in Sommerville, many of whom are long term residents, just want to have their city reconnected so that the streets that they drive on, and walk next to, aren't, as you say, a confusing mess and there isn't a great big divide between neighborhoods (other than I-93 and the multiple rail lines of course).
Scott Brown voted three times
Scott Brown voted three times against jobs bills that would have provided capital for infrastructure projects like this one.
We built the interstates highway system with federal tax dollars, and we built the national park system with federal tax dollars. The idea that we shouldn't use federal tax dollars, (even borrowed becuase interest rates are less than 1%) is ridiculous. Fact of the matter is, Republicans do support using Federal money. They all bitched about the Recovery Act and then wrote the White House asking for money for their districts, which they got.
Republicans decided in 2010 on Election day in the US Capitol to obstruct all bills, to oppose Obama on every initiative, to deprive Obama all success, even if it hurt the US economic recovery, because Republicans #1 priority was not jobs but defeating Obama in 2012. Think twice before rewarding Republicans for this kind of selfish behavior -- putting the objectives of the GOP elite before 300 million Americans.
As someone who's also a long-time resident of Somerville,
I, too am one of those "kooks" who want the McCarthy overpass here in Somerville torn down, and not just fixed temporarily so that it'll stand for another decade or more. Anybody ever taken a walk under or around that overpass? there are sizeable holes galore that not only expose the old, rusted-out steel frame but the fact that the concrete has lost its integrity.
Tearing down the McCarthy overpass and making it a really user-friendly (i. e. drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians) flat, on the ground, surface boulevard would not only reunite the city of Somerville and re-connect various neighborhoods, but it would make it way safer for bicyclists, walkers and pedestrians, and would slow down the traffic on McGrath-Obrien Highway, which moves much too fast as it is. Plus, it would be safer to walk around at night, as well. Ialso know that I, as a woman, do not feel particularly safe walking under that overpass at night, either.
I would *much* rather cross
I would *much* rather cross 28 under the Washington Street underpass, instead of having to play 8-lane frogger at the recently-rebuilt surface intersection at Broadway.
bridge vs. overpass
Not Websters, but let's just make up some definitions here:
Bridges should be a means of conveyance spanning things like rivers, chasms, another road or something fairly discrete. Overpasses are elevated highways that isolate roads from things around them by raising them up over them, like neighborhoods, series of roads and intersections and entire cities. Bridges are good and should be maintained. Overpasses can be good and should be maintained when they're not poorly thought out, blighted nightmares of highway design gone bad that totally fuck neighborhoods and urban landscapes.
Now I'm not yet one of those people who insist that getting rid of the Casey Overpass is going to result in better traffic flow -- I think it'll slow down cars in that area and as a driver who is frequently in a rush and drives like an asshole, that upsets me a little. But as an occasional walker and biker and lover of enjoyable urban settings, I think losing the Casey Overpass is worth it. I feel the same way about McGrath and I use that one far more regularly. It's a nasty piece of crap and instead of putting the money into repairing it, they should just take the mother down.
In either case they better do something soon, because they seem to be making up their own minds as to what they're going to do.
your numbers are wrong
The 10-15 million is not to fix it permanently, just to fix it enough to last another few years while the state waits to tear it down. A new overpass (or bridge as you call it) will cost much, more than turning it into a boulevard for all users, as both the Casey and Rutherford plans showed, not to mention the 10-15 million to have it patched together until they can replace it. Its much more expensive to build new overpasses than to make them at grade boulevards with bike lanes and wider sidewalks.
So, if your argument is about money, spending 10-15 to repair it for a few years and then much, much, more to make a new one doesn't make any sense. Its more economical to tear them down now, especially since the state has already agreed to NOT rebuild Casey, its just wasting 10-15 million to delay taking it down. So you should be happy residents in Somerville are trying to get the state not to waste money.
Good point, anonymous.
Why the hell doesn't the state just tear the damned thing down....now, instead of blowing ten million or so bucks just to make temporary repairs on it so it can stand for another decade or more. I wonder if any of the bigwigs who're into their own agenda and don't give a rat's ass what the average, ordinary, everyday people want would change their minds if they took a walk under and around that McCarthy overpass and saw what horrible shape it really was in, and how unsafe it is for walkers, bicyclists and pedestrians, and how frustrating it is for drivers to have to sit through as many as 3 or 4 traffic light cycles, especially during the morning and late-afternoon/evening rush hours.
Really??
No, they're not fine, and the fact that overpasses like the Casey Overpass in Jamaica Plain and the McCarthy Overpass have been coming down all over the United States indicates what it's about; Ordinary people want something newer and not so 1950's.
A preview of what's to come
Well, they claim to have plans for when the overpass is taken down, and all sorts of people claim that everything will be better when it is down compared to now, so I can't wait to hit Forest Hills tonight.
Thankfully, this is one of those days when people leave work early.
Not exactly
What's to come will not have a huge, crumbling pile of crap in the middle of it. Removal of it provides additional lanes. People not thinking that there is a fast overpass over the intersection will also result in some people not driving through there or perhaps using other transportation options (if that works for them). Your argument that this is some sort of trial run for the final solution is obviously faulty. But I'd agree with you in that cars will not go as fast through that stretch of town.
Is the overpass safe for foot traffic?
The Boston half marathon is a month away and runs right over that overpass.This will make for a good preview of what we can expect once the overpass is torn down completely. It is most likely going to be a vehicular dilemma for many car traveling people.
I guess I need to figure out
I guess I need to figure out how to incorporate "potentially collapsing bridge" into my training program.
You can always long jump
Going out won't be bad. Long jumping after nine miles though______________that may be more bad.
Not a preview of tearing it down
A sudden, unexpected stoppage of traffic catches people by surprise.
A planned, well-notified closure is a completely different thing.
A great example happened recently in NYC/NJ. The Alexander Hamilton bridge has a lane closed for repairs since last month. All the shrill analysts and reporters predicted traffic 'carmageddon' for NJ commuters over the connecting GWB.
They were all wrong: traffic ended up being even lighter than normal before slowly balancing back out at usual levels.
The Casey Overpass is a dinky nothing in comparison to the George Washington Bridge. Time to stop hurting the neighborhood in the name of 50s era urban renewal social engineering.
So that's why
Traffic was backed up to Brookline Ave on the J-Way today. Natch.
I'm winning. I mean, whining ...
So, yeah, totally off-topic, but this is exactly what's happening with the Storrow Drive tunnel. No one wants to put on their big-boy pants and say it needs to be shut down so they can fix / replace it. Instead, we're going to spend millions to repair it just so we can shut it down later and spend twice as much - or, more.
Oh, and this is what's happening with the Longfellow, too.
Got, someone please grow a pair and make some decisions. I'm looking at you, Governor Deval Patrick (D-JetBlue)